TCAP Scores Count Toward Student Grades

DeKalb County students now have even more reason to perform well on TCAP exams.
Beginning last spring TCAP Achievement test scores in the third through eighth grade began comprising 20% of a student’s final grades in the subjects of Math, Reading/Laguage Arts, Science, and Social Studies. The percentage increased to 25% beginning with this school year, 2011-12.
Meanwhile, the End of Course test grades for high school students now count for 25% of their final grades. The percentage last year was 20%.
The DeKalb County Board of Education last December adopted this new policy based on a recommendation by Jonathan Fontanez, who was the Supervisor of Instruction for Grades 7-12 at that time.
Fontanez explained that beginning with the 2011 spring semester, the state began requiring that each local board of education develop a policy by which scores on the TCAP achievement tests administered to third through eighth grade students comprise a percentage of the students final grade for the spring semester in the subjects of Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. According to Fontanez, the percentage shall be determined by the local board of education within a range of 15%-25%. The policy had to be developed and implemented by the spring semester of 2011.
According to state policy, High School End of Course test grades formerly counted for 20% of the final course grades in End of Course assessed subjects. Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year and the subsequent years following, the End of Course test grades for those assessed courses will count 25% toward a student’s final grade.
Fontanez recommended that the board make the percentage for grades 3-8 coincide with the high school requirement already in place so as to help establish a measure of continuity across grades within the district.
Under the new policy, the percentage is 25% of a students final grade in class for grades 3-8 which is the same percentage used for the high school End of Course grade calculations .

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